Social media platforms 'degrading our democracy', O'Neil says

Speaking at an Australian National University event on Tuesday, Clare O'Neil called out social media platforms for "degrading our democracy and dividing us at the very time when we need to be united".

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil addressed the Optus data breach during parliamentary Question Time.

Ms O'Neil's speech to the National Security College on safeguarding electoral integrity came as Federal Parliament moves to crack down on the online platforms on multiple fronts.

In May, Labor referred Meta's controversial decision to walk away from the News Media Bargaining Code to a joint parliamentary inquiry.

The move means Facebook will no longer pay publishers for their news content, in a blow to Australian media.

Both the government and the Coalition have also signalled interest in keeping children off social media, with the eSafety Commission receiving $6.5 million to launch a pilot of age assurance technology.

"What we're seeing instead is a large-scale tool which is driving polarisation and entrenching binary views and values, that we see all the time today in the way that Australians politics is conducted," the Home Affairs Minister said.

"Misinformation has always been a part of democratic life, but not like today.

"Social media allows misinformation to spread at warp speed, with a scale and intensity that we've never seen before in human history."

Ms O'Neil said the uptick of populism around the globe was not based on chance, but directly linked to social media.

"It's no chance that the recent rise that we have seen all over the world in populism is correlated with the introduction of social media.

"What's really worrying me about this problem is that what we're seeing now is the tip of the iceberg," she said, referencing the prospective impacts of generative AI.

The Home Affairs Minister also spoke on the Israel-Gaza conflict's influence on rising anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, referencing harrowing reports from those in her electorate, and from representative bodies.

She condemned reports of protests which have targeted electorate offices around the country, in which activists have called for politicians to demand Israel end its retaliatory attacks in Gaza, following the October 7 Hamas attacks.

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"When I see some of the activity that's going on today, preventing vulnerable people from accessing government services - that's not respectful of our fellow citizens," she said.

"Jamming open the door of the offices of politicians and screaming so that our staff have to leave, shaking with fear - these are not democratic ways of expressing belief.

"Painting blood-red symbols of terrorism, leaving childlike fake bodies outside the offices of elected representatives.

"These are not properly peaceful protests, they are menacing, they are violent, and they are unacceptable."

Labor MP Josh Burns' Melbourne electorate office was vandalised last week in what he called a "politically motivated attack", with windows smashed and walls painted with the slogan "Zionism is fascism".

Ms O'Neil urged national leaders to weigh their words carefully in the midst of heightened tensions in the community.

"The most important things that politicians can do is think really carefully about what they do and say, sometimes the most powerful thing we have in politics is have a voice," she said.

"This is a really unique moment for our country, a really important one, and what at we need is national leaders whose natural instinct is to bring people together."